CHOOSING NAME (I)

Hadrat Imâm-i Rabbânî says in the 23th letter of the first volume of his Maktûbât:

Hadrat Muhammad ‘’alaihi-s-salâm’, who was born in Arabia,
Is the highest of mankind in both worlds!
May he who will not become earth at his door
Remain under the earth all the time!

May our salâms be to the highest and the most superior of Prophets ‘’alâ nabiyyinâ wa ’alaihimussalawâtu wa-t-teslîmât’.

To my astonishment, I have heard that one of the poets who had been honoured with your valuable tawajjuh adopted a disbeliever’s name as his surname. Moreover, he is one of the Sayyids, one of those great people whom we are to love. I wish I had not heard about this. I wonder why he accepted this base name? I can never see why he should. It is necessary to beware of accepting such names more than bewaring of dreadful lions. Such names should be deemed uglier than anything ugly. For these names and their owners are the enemies of Allâhu ta’âlâ. They are His Prophet’s ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ enemies. Muslims have been commanded to deem all disbelievers as enemies [whether they be Christians or Jews or disbelievers without a book]. It is wâjib for every Muslim not to give such dirty names to his children. Tell him on my behalf to change that name! Let him replace it with a name that is better and which becomes a Muslim! What suits a Muslim is to accept a Muslim name. It is this only which Allâhu ta’âlâ likes, which His Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ likes, and which is suitable for the position of a person who has been honoured with being in the Islamic religion.

[Abu Dâwûd and Ibni Habbân state that Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ declared: “On the Day of Rising you will be called with your names and with the names of your fathers. Therefore, accept beautiful names!” As Tirmuzî states, Hadrat ’Âisha ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anhâ’ said that Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ used to change ugly names.]